Mac has been the undisputed home of local AI, but Nvidia is giving Microsoft an assist to get Windows in the game.
On Thursday at IFA 2026, Nvidia unveiled new tools and hardware aimed at making it easier for more PC users to run AI locally on Nvidia GPUs for faster local inference. For starters, Nvidia RTX Spark arrives in October in new Windows PCs from Lenovo and Acer, on display this week at IFA. RTX Spark has a 1 Petaflop RTX Blackwell GPU, up to 128GB of unified memory and a highly efficient 20-core Grace CPU, which, when combined with new agent frameworks, gives Windows PCs the power to run always-on AI agents locally.
Nvidia is also offering a simpler model setup on Windows for three of the most popular agent apps: Perplexity Portable Computer, Hermes Agent, and OpenClaw. Here is a quick rundown of the features, according to the release:
Perplexity Portable Computer: Will be available on Nvidia RTX GPUs with at least 24GB VRAM running Linux or Windows** Hermes Agent**: Coming soon, configuring a local model in Hermes will be streamlined with one-click setup across RTX and DGX systems on both Windows and LinuxOpenClaw: Nvidia worked with Microsoft to reduce set-up friction and the result is that the OpenClaw Windows App simplifies setting up an optimized local model on any RTX GPU with at least 24GB of VRAM
Building on its efforts to improve AI use efficiency, the tech giant also unveiled NVIDIA Personal AI Router (PAIR), a free, open-source software tool that can coordinate a household's PCs to run local AI together. NVIDIA says that PAIR can automatically discover compatible PCs on a local network and route independent inference requests to the system with available capacity. Ultimately, this is meant to bypass the bottleneck that is caused when multiple agents or tasks are waiting on a single GPU.
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The rise of AI agents has led working professionals to discover brand-new ways AI can assist with their work. However, the caveat is that agents can quickly rack up token costs and so power users typically want to move to running AI locally. Until now, it has largely meant a reliance on Mac products, as seen by the shortage of the Mac mini and Mac Studio, and the rollout of cutting-edge AI features arriving on Mac first. The release of Nvidia RTX Spark on Windows by Nvidia is significant, as it gives users who don't want to be locked into Apple's walled garden more choice. It may also sway developers from overlooking Windows when unveiling the latest features on desktop apps, which would be a win for Microsoft and for Windows users.
Disclaimer: Sabrina Ortiz's travel to IFA 2026 was paid for by IFA. The Deep View's coverage is editorially independent from the companies we cover.